Elon Musk’s Starlink Satellite-Internet Service Battles Dish Over Airwaves

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., better known as SpaceX, is urging the Federal Communications Commission to avoid making new rules that it says would hobble its Starlink internet service, which depends on a swarm of low-flying satellites. That has put the company and satellite operators like OneWeb and Kepler Communications Inc. at odds with

Dish Network Corp.

DISH 1.55%

and others that want the FCC to open more room on the spectrum for fifth-generation wireless service.

Both sides have stepped up their lobbying at the FCC and on Capitol Hill. SpaceX last month urged Starlink customers to sound alarms about any rule changes by writing to the regulator, an appeal that has generated more than 95,000 comments to the commission.

Dish, a satellite operator co-founded by telecom mogul

Charlie Ergen,

has said it is betting its future on 5G wireless service closer to the ground. Mr. Ergen’s allies in the dispute include the wealth-management firm of technology entrepreneur Michael

Dell.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is among the congressional leaders who have stepped into the fray. He urged the FCC not to disrupt the “innovation and investment made by satellite operators” in the spectrum to help them keep a technological edge over Chinese rivals, according to a June 17 letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The California Republican also said the length of time the FCC has spent on its review had created uncertainty for satellite companies.

The commission has for years been mulling proposals to safely expand the usage of wireless frequencies that sit above 12 gigahertz. Those frequencies have long carried TV transmissions for Dish and DirecTV. Newer satellite-internet companies joined the band in recent years under strictures requiring that each satellite avoid drowning out its neighbors’ spaceborne signals.

The rule-making process has no time limit and the commission could opt to make no changes at all.

At stake is a swath of wireless frequencies worth tens of billions of dollars if past auctions for other licenses are any guide. SpaceX and Dish both say their technologies can link the millions of Americans who still lack a high-speed internet connection—provided that the companies have enough wireless spectrum available.

Dish said that cellular-technology advances prompted it to lobby the FCC to further loosen its spectrum rules to support future 5G service.

Executives at Starlink, which transmits data from satellites in much lower orbits than Dish, objected to that plan alongside other satellite operators. The company, citing its own analysis, said in a recent FCC filing that Dish’s plan would allow companies to create loud signals that would drown out more sensitive satellite transmissions.

David Goldman, senior director for satellite policy at SpaceX, said Dish and Mr. Dell’s investment firm are seeking to profit from the potential changes to the airwaves in question without meeting FCC requirements.

Dish public-policy chief

Jeffrey Blum

disputed SpaceX’s arguments and said that 5G advocates have met the commission’s requirements by backing up their assertions with engineering research.

“We’re confident the FCC will soon determine the best means to bring this spectrum into the FCC’s frequency pipeline,” said V. Noah Campbell, the chief of a company held by Mr. Dell’s investment firm.

Both sides are digging in for a potentially long fight. Dish and its allies have said it will take several years for the frequencies in question to work their way into smartphones and other machines that can take advantage of them. SpaceX has urged the commission to end its review.

Mr. Musk’s company has already used its rockets to blast around 2,600 of one version of its Starlink satellites into orbit and reported more than 400,000 subscribers for the internet service globally, according to a June presentation the company filed with the FCC. Starlink is available in large parts of the U.S., according to a map available on the service’s website. The company has also sought FCC permission to dramatically expand the Starlink fleet over time.

The closely held company doesn’t release financial information but was recently valued at around $125 billion. In addition to developing Starlink, SpaceX handles human and cargo space missions for NASA and launches U.S. spy satellites.

Starlink’s reach is primed to grow after the FCC on June 30 approved its request to serve moving vehicles like boats, recreational vehicles and airplanes. The decision helped Mr. Musk’s company expand its prospective customer base but didn’t settle the broader fight over spectrum.

The argument over a typically obscure federal license offered both sides a chance to trade more accusations. A Dish lawyer’s June 7 letter to regulators seized on Mr. Musk’s tweets about Starlink, calling them proof that the company was jumping the gun through “rule violations that are not kept secret but rather proclaimed from the mountaintops of social media.”

Mr. Goldman, the SpaceX satellite-policy director, replied in a June 8 letter that Dish’s “fanciful use of

Twitter

and low opinion of American consumers” took Mr. Musk’s tweets out of context, including one that committed to helping Ukraine’s government use its service.

SpaceX has tangled with other satellite operators in proceedings at the FCC but also has found ways to work with competitors. Last month, SpaceX and OneWeb told the commission that their satellite systems would be able to coexist. The companies said they conducted extensive, good-faith discussions to reach that conclusion.

Write to Drew FitzGerald at [email protected] and Micah Maidenberg at [email protected]